A three-block area on the Upper West Side has become quite a battleground. Two homeless shelters recently opened on 95th Street with little warning despite angry protests, there have been two fatal stabbings (on 95th and 93rd) blocks apart in the past few weeks, and now this: a man was shot outside 310 West 95th Street on Friday morning right in front of a building next to one of the shelters.

On Friday shortly before 1 a.m., a man was shot in the shoulder in front of 310 West 95th Street, just next to the new emergency shelter installed about a week before at 316 West 95th. The man was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital and was “not likely to die,” NYPD said. Police haven’t arrested anyone in connection with the shooting, an NYPD spokesperson told us, and there weren’t any other details immediately available about the crime.

As one neighbor told us: “Until a couple of weeks ago, I felt pretty safe in this building (I live in 310), but I’m feeling a lot less safe these days! Two stabbings, one shooting, a new securityless homeless shelter…what can possibly be next?”

We wrote earlier this year about a spike in crime in the 24th precinct. That trend appears to be continuing: through August 5, felony crimes were up 25.4% over the same time last year. See the chart below (click to enlarge) for more details. Felony crime is also up 16.5% in the 20th precinct, which covers the lower half of the Upper West Side.

For a first-hand account by one of our columnists about getting punched on 103rd Street, click here.

HELP. Our families chose the Upper West Side as our home. We are raising children here. We are sending our children to Public Schools. We support local merchants. And we voted for YOU. You are our representatives, so PLEASE REPRESENT US.

What will you do so we do not need to fear for ourselves and our neighbors in what is otherwise a wonderful neighborhood.

clearly our elected officials have their own agenda. and it does not include the rights and best interests of their constituents who actually pay their own way without handouts to live in this city (AKA Fat Cats) as they think. no subsidies for us , but we still take the subways – no limos for us liberals – and have to be asaulted on a daily basis by these dregs of society who have more rights and power then we ever do, despite the far left argument to the contrary.

Goodbye big Windermere money. Oh yes, the hot, hot, hot UWS – WEA and 94th – “Luxury Upper West Side Residences?” Only 2 blocks away from the mess that is West 95th Street? And let us not forget the families who already occupy said buildings and who have paid rent for years and who want no more than a decent place to live and raise a family – and should not have to do so by running a gauntlet of various crazies. Also…as a sidestory…as this happens…goodbye, Joan of Arc Island as a peaceful place. So the lower and middle class is (of course) being squeezed out…by the luxos and speculators who want to be a part of a “neighborhood.” The neighborhood today is not the neighborhood of yesterday that they – in their dreams – signed up for. And, Bill, this Mayor is anything but liberal – he’s an overbearing, whining, wannabe king. Our next Mayor…whoever she or he may be…must bring to our declining city, the rarest of all political commodities – common sense. Also, David T, I wish it were thus and so, but I fear the grab for a vote superseeds all, you, me and those neighbors we hold near and dear.

This story relies on the trickery of reference bias to grab readers with fear. Using as your baseline one of the safest years on record and raising the alarm because overall felonies increased 25% ignores the historical fact that felonies in that base period were DOWN 75.61% from the year that I moved to the neighborhood (1993).

Even if categorical crime rates continue through the rest of the year, 2012 will still be one of the safest years in the history of NYC crime statistics! Of course, stories about how remarkably safe the neighborhood has become doesn’t grab readers. Scaring them with statistical deception and subtle appeals to class biases surely does the job!

Much of the blame lies on the extreme left wing politicos who control this town. Ending stop and frisk, housing every homeless who enters our doorstep, increases in all social services, decreases in services that SERVE the whole community and not just special interests.

I shudder at the thought of anyone of the candidates for mayor winning. We are going back to the days of Dinkins or Beame.

David and other writers. you do know this is all rosenthal and Brewer’s fault, by outlawing the use of SRO as normal hotels and not allowing them to be converted to normal apartment use, what choice do the owners have but to rent to the Homeless Services ( $3000 per month per room!). or blame the super liberal judges who made it a law that NYC (taxpayers) have to house every person who demands it , no matter where they are from , no questions asked. No other city or state is forced to do this.

the silk stocking Upper East Side representatives would never allow this in their neighbhorhood, Call and scream at Gale and Linda to change the law . no hotel rooms in apartments? fine, but SROs are hotels!!!

They slid that language in without telling the public.

new york is great , we are all social liberals, but enough is enough!!!!! fight back for your city

So let me get this straight: My college grad son cannot afford to live an apartment on the UWS. But, if he was a degenerate sofa sitter, he gets a free apartment paid for by taxpayers for $3k a month on West 95th Street?

This is the public policy from our courts and elected officials of New York City?

And I’m betting that all of you that are crying about this issue are voting for Obama who has helped create a more robust welfare state. “Just not in my neighborhood” right? For all of you bleeding heart liberals- The chickens are coming home to roost!

Only on the UWS (and maybe Berkley) can you be a liberal , but have folks like Gale brewer and Rosenthal to make you look like right wing republicans.

Sure I want to help people and let them do their own thing. But……let them pay for a life a smoking drugs, aggressive panhandling and other criminal behavior. Why would anyone invite people like that to live in your own community that you pay a huge premium to live in and they live for free? That is ridiculous. Gale, you are in serious trouble with this and you better make it right.
..and why is the City paying over a hundred dollars a night per person per room to house them on the upper west side? My lord, you can rent a hotel room in jersey or further south for $40-$50 per night.! why do they have to be housed in high rent areas?
Yes, New york is expensive, but we are part of an entire country where it is far cheaper to house poor and drug addled folks in other places!

“Across 110th Street” we have both Barnard and Columbia both willing to scoop up any and all bankrupted real estate and willing to each pay for their own private squad cars to survey the area all day long. As a hard physical scientist by training I can’t tell you how amusing it is to see self-governance run by mere liberal arts majors. It’s not an ironic “oops” effect you are suffering. It’s just another Democratic plan in action to pay for votes. Every washed out psycho nationwide can live in a palace if only they can make it to the UWS to be “community organized.”

First, the City only allows 200 beds per shelter. They are using 2 adjacent and connected buildings, with the same owner, for a total of 400 beds. This is sneaky and illegal! Second, this mega-shelter is DIRECTLY across the street from an elementary school, 3 playgrounds and a senior home. This is a City-sanctioned hazard. Third, this is prime Riverside Drive territory where law-abiding and tax paying citizens can barely afford a studio apt. but the City is paying $3k pp for a dingy room in a rundown SRO meant for permanent affordable housing our politicians say we so badly need? Everyone should be outraged, beware the DHS taking over a building next door to any of you, and get your kids out of that school. What a disaster, stand with your community and oppose this insanity.Don’t let the UWS return to the bad old days, we have come too far!